Stars in Her Eyes
by Smarty Cat
Summary: [Oneshot] Heero catches Relena sneaking out of her room late one night and gets dragged along on an 'adventure.' Fluff warning. Watch out for the warm fuzzies. They're vicious. ALL comments and criticisms are welcome.


**Please note: As of November 2011, ALL NEW FICS unrelated to previously posted works will be posted under the name Inverse Calico. A link is on my author profile.**

Many thanks to miaka mouse for being a wonderful beta, great author, lovely oneechan, and wacky mad scientist. What would I do without you?

**Disclaimer****: **Gundam Wing is owned by Sunrise and Sotsu Agency and distributed in America exclusively under license by Bandai Entertainment. They're not mine, folks. I just like to play with them.

**Completed:** July 31, 2002

_For Beck and kmf  
Happy Belated Birthday!  
(because you know I can't be on time for anything)  
__  
_**Stars in Her Eyes  
**by  
**Smarty Cat  
**  
"Here, guardy guardy guardy!"

The playful singsong words carried clearly through the still night air. A young woman popped her head out of a doorway and glanced curiously up and down the long corridor running through the interior of the Sanc palace. She frowned when no one appeared in answer to her coaxing call and blew a strand of honey blonde hair out of her face with an exasperated sigh.

"I don't believe this. Security is never this lax." She raised her voice. "Hello! I know you're out here and can hear me."

No reply came, so she shrugged, a small smile lighting her features. She easily hefted a duffel bag over her shoulder and took one last cursory glance around the interior of her bedroom before exiting and easing the door closed.

"I am going out for the night. You can't say I didn't warn you."

She beamed cheerfully at absolutely nothing as she darted out into the darkened hallway. Very little moonlight penetrated the large windows with their thick drapes, and her black clad body melted easily into the shadows, her vibrant locks reduced to a dull glint in the dim light. As she padded swiftly and silently over the lush carpeting, she never noticed the dark-haired figure that detached itself from the shadows in pursuit.

Her follower watched silently as she darted from one deep patch of darkness to another in a strangely joyous dance while humming the "infiltration theme" from a popular spy movie under her breath. The bag slung across her back bounced merrily in keeping with her stride and transformed her shadow into some odd cavorting hunchback. She slowed to a skipping walk when the outline of a locked case set into the stone wall came into view.

She knelt down, depositing her cargo silently on the carpet, and ran slender gloved fingers over the old-fashioned keyhole before pulling up her left sleeve to reveal a multitude of lock picks strapped to the pale skin of her forearm. After a moment's deliberation, the woman picked one slender tool, inserted it into the keyhole, and began delicately maneuvering it through the tumblers. White teeth flashed in the darkness followed by a muffled click as the door swung open.

Her hidden watcher eased forward as she pulled out a large rectangular case with a soft cry of satisfaction. She snapped the lid up and inspected its contents, running one hand almost caressingly down the barrel of the expensive instrument. Nodding happily, she closed the case and rose swiftly to her feet.

"I can see Duo's been a bad influence on you."

Her posture stiffened guiltily, and she spun slowly on her heel to face the man behind her, a wry smile on her lips. She shrugged and raised her hands palm up in the air. "What can I say? He's a fun teacher...and I've always been a quick learner."

His eyes narrowed. "Did he teach you to steal from yourself?"

Wide ocean blue eyes gaped at him for the barest of seconds before she burst into peals of laughter. "Don't be ridiculous, Heero! I don't know why security insists on making this so difficult. If everyone weren't so paranoid and overprotective I wouldn't have to use such drastic measures. It's not like I can hurt myself with this! Well...I guess it would hurt if I dropped it on my feet." She suddenly grinned at her slightly disgruntled companion. "I had been wondering when someone would show up though. Why were you lurking in the shadows?"

"It's what I'm paid to do," he responded flatly.

She wrinkled her nose at him. "You could have answered me."

"You didn't call for me."

She cocked her head, a mixture of curiosity and sarcasm lacing her words. "A generic 'guardy' isn't good enough for you? Should I run through the names of every guard that's ever been assigned to me or just call yours and wait for you to magically appear? Because I can just imagine the tabloid headlines if I'm caught sneaking out of my room on a manhunt. Secret star-crossed lovers and midnight liaisons wouldn't begin to cover it."

"We're not lovers, Relena."

"You have a remarkable talent for stating the obvious." She scowled at him, looking rather put out. "I know that, you know that, but the public doesn't know that. What else are they supposed to think when I'm wandering around the palace at night looking in shadows and calling your name?"

"They aren't supposed to think anything. Your guards and other staff should not discuss anything that occurs within this building."

"The operative word being 'should.' Now who's being hopelessly idealistic, Heero? They're only human and humans love to gossip. Besides I'd rather they say that I have a lover than that I've gone crazy."

She smiled suddenly at her stoic guard, stepping nearer to him with a slight sway of her hips. "I'm glad you're the one here with me tonight, Heero." She licked her lips enticingly and inched even closer to the suddenly frozen ex-soldier. Her eyes sparkled as she gently took one of his hands, running her gloved fingers lightly across his palm. "You can carry this!"

With that she turned, skipping cheerfully away and leaving a stunned Heero holding the bulky and surprisingly heavy case. He stared at her, willing his heart rate to return to normal while trying to force words around the sudden lump in his throat.

"Relena, you should go back to bed."

She twirled around, her lustrous hair fanning out in a halo behind her. "Aren't you coming with me? I'm not at all tired," she breathed coyly.

The handsome man facing her stiffened, his eyes widening fractionally as he considered all the possible insinuations in her response. His heart immediately resumed its breakneck pace, and he gulped, clenching his fingers around the case's handle as his mind helpfully supplied him with hormone-laden images of Relena and her nice large bed.

"Heero, come on! We haven't got all night!"

All at once she was at his side again, one of her hands wrapped around his, tugging encouragingly. With an inward sigh, he allowed himself to be dragged down the corridor away from her bedroom to a flight of stairs hidden behind an ornately sculpted column.

The duffel slung over her shoulder buffeted the hapless man with each step, and relief mingled with dismay in his mind when she released his hand to dig for something in the bag. After a few seconds of blind searching, Relena pulled out a red ski cap and gathered her hair on top of her head, tucking the golden mass beneath the cap's woven warmth. She tugged the cloth down over her ears and regarded Heero's appearance with a scrutinizing eye.

"I hope you won't be too cold."

"Unlikely." He shrugged carelessly.

"If you say so."

She sighed and opened the door at the top of the stairs. The pair emerged on the palace roof, and Relena dropped her bag with a squeal of delight. Heero paused, his breath misting in the cold air as he studied the vista stretching before him. An expanse of glittering stars arched overhead while the soft lights of the city glowed in the distance and silver moonbeams danced across the calm harbor. None of which compared to the bright face of the young woman spinning in a joyous circle with her eyes closed and her arms raised to the sky

She gradually came to a stop and wrapped her arms around herself, swaying slightly. "Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight, I wish I may, I wish I might, have this wish I wish tonight." Her eyes opened almost languidly and focused on some distant twinkle as her lips moved in a silent request. Then she beamed over at him. "Isn't it beautiful, Heero?"

"Yeah," he answered quietly, simultaneously pretending that he had not been trying to read her lips and fighting the strange urge to rip that hat from her head and watch her golden hair tumble down her back in the moonlight.

Her brow furrowed, noting the curious edge in his voice. They stood silently regarding one another from a short distance. Relena finally broke their almost trance when she stepped forward to take the case from him, settling herself on the roof and happily assembling the telescope she pulled from its padded confines. Heero eyed the duffel bag where she had dropped it in her enthusiasm, idly wondering what she had stuffed in the thing.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I haven't been thinking!"

He blinked at her, unaware that she had been watching him for some time. She shook her head and crawled over to the bag, yanking back the zipper. She removed a bundle of cloth and carefully unwrapped a pair of binoculars. Then she shook out the cloth, revealing it to be a patchwork quilt.

Heero eyed her warily as she approached him holding the quilt in much the same way a matador would hold his red cape. Relena arched one eyebrow wryly as her lips twitched, and she flung the quilt around his back, draping the warm cloth over his body and smoothing the wrinkles from the fabric that bunched on his shoulders.

"So you don't freeze. It's a pity the best conditions for stargazing are in the winter. I've also got some hot cocoa in a thermos."

Relena blushed as he stared at her wonderingly and swiftly removed her hands. She turned away, focusing on the sky and attempting to pretend that she was not flustered by busying herself with her telescope. After a few moments, she glanced up at him from beneath her lashes. He stood rigidly where she had left him swathed in the quilt so she patted the space beside her in invitation. He dropped down beside her, obligingly following her gaze to the stars above.

"I've always loved the stars. I think that's part of the reason why I love the colonies so much. They're closer to the stars, and they look like stars themselves from earth. There's just something so awe-inspiring about the cosmos." She smiled sadly. "We're so tiny and insignificant compared to that."

"Do you like to feel inferior?"

She sputtered at the odd question. "No! I don't like feeling inferior, but I get so tired of being the one people follow blindly. I'm not omniscient, and I'm not a savior. I'm just a girl. Everyone always seems to forget that. I guess sometimes I just wish that I could be unimportant, just another little ant going about her daily business. And I'm not saying that what happens to mankind doesn't matter. It does, and I have a rather personal involvement in it...but in the grand scheme of things, how much importance does our fate actually have?"

"You wonder."

"Yes. I look at the stars and I wonder. So many possibilities..."

"What's the rest of the reason why you like the colonies?"

She blinked at the sudden change of subject, and a slow smile spread across her face. "The people."

Heero nodded, and Relena began pointing out some of the constellations and comparing the stellar views from the northern and southern hemispheres. Heero remained silent, enjoying the gentle melody of her voice. When he noticed that she had begun to shiver, he scooted closer to her and opened the quilt, drawing her into a rough embrace. Relena fell into an abrupt, stunned silence as he adjusted the quilt around her and withdrew his arm.

"I didn't know you knew astronomy."

She glanced up at him, flushing at their proximity. "I don't. Not really. I can recognize a few constellations and planets, but that's it. I don't understand any of the science part of it, but I don't really need to." She looked at him earnestly, an odd glimmer in her eyes and a tinge of wistfulness coloring her voice. "The stars aren't any less beautiful just because I don't know how they were made. I don't have to know their history to love them. I love them because they just are."

"Are...?"

"Themselves. Because they are. Because they exist. What about you, Heero?"

"Navigation aids."

"Is that all they are to you?"

His eyes trailed over her upturned face, so close, so searching, so uncertain. He had the feeling that they were not just talking about the stars anymore, and he had grown weary of the wall of denial between them. "They guide me...show me my true path."

She licked her parted lips nervously, and his gaze focused on that intriguing movement before flicking back up to her eyes. Her voice was a soft, hopeful breath. "And what is that?"

Heero stared deep into her brilliant eyes, the light of a thousand stars sparkling in her irises and the secrets of the universe swirling tantalizingly though the black depths of her pupils. He reached forward hesitantly, brushing his fingers across her cheek and along her jawbone before grasping the cap and pulling it free of her hair. She gasped softly when he tangled his fingers through her tresses and gently pulled her closer. Her eyes drifted closed as his warm breath fanned across her chilled skin.

"Relena, look at me."

His voice was a soft command, a heated whisper against her mouth that set her senses aflame. It was a laborious task to open her heavy lids, but the sight that greeted her was more than worth the effort. Heero's intense eyes, the color of the night sky she so loved, burned with an inner fire scant inches from her own. Their hypnotic gaze held Relena captive as he closed the remaining distance between them and touched his lips to hers.

Brief, hesitant brushes grew longer and deeper as they gained confidence. Heero allowed himself a fleeting smile when Relena moaned encouragingly into his mouth and twined her arms around his neck. Their tongues curled together in a heated, sensuous dance as his hands caressed the soft skin of her back beneath her heavy coat. Relena had braced one hand on his thigh and was applying gentle suction to the sensitive skin of his lower lip when they were suddenly interrupted by the evilest sound known to man.

"Beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep beeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!"

Relena broke the kiss with a startled gasp, shoved Heero away, and scrambled to her feet. "Eeeek! We're going to miss it!"

He stared up at her dazedly from his uncomfortably sprawled position and wondered what had happened. One minute they were wrapped around one another quite pleasantly and the next he was laid out on his back while Relena hopped anxiously from one foot to the other in time with her watch's infernal beeping. But it was some consolation that the noise had not come from his alarm clock, awakening him from a dream. This was real. The cold was real. The tingling in his lips was real. Relena was real.

She suddenly gasped in awe, and Heero followed her rapt gaze up to the silver streaks racing across the sky. He propped himself up on his elbows and gazed at the spectacle with open wonder. He knew intellectually that the meteor shower was nothing more than space trash burning up in the earth's atmosphere, but it was so beautiful. Almost...magical.

"Make a wish, Heero."

He glanced over at Relena dubiously before turning his eyes back to the heavens. Him wish on a shooting star? But why not? The stars had led him to Relena. The stars had led him home. Heero obligingly closed his eyes, and a sudden brilliant smile bloomed on his face.

"So what'd you wish for?"

He smirked at the woman kneeling beside him with the open curiosity of a child and drew her into his lap, wrapping the quilt around them in a warm cocoon. One of his fingers tapped her nose affectionately.

"If I tell you then it won't come true."

She raised her eyebrows and pouted, once again drawing Heero's attention to her kiss-swollen lips. This could get to be addicting. He ran his finger lightly across her mouth and watched with satisfaction as she shivered. Relena leaned up suddenly, lightly running her tongue over his upper lip.

"About those tabloids... Lovers?" Her lips brushed teasingly against his with every word.

"Lovers," he agreed in a husky growl as he claimed her mouth in a series of fiery kisses and lowered her body, settling himself over her comfortably.

Later, when they lay comfortably entangled, watching the last meteors fall from the heavens, Heero rubbed his chin across the top of Relena's head and spoke quietly, "Relena? Mine came true."

He felt her smile against his neck, and she snuggled closer to him. "Mine too."


End file.
